In recent years, public concern regarding diet, in particular, fat intake, has dramatically increased. The focus on fat intake is particularly important as it has been found to relate to heart disease and other ailments, which are believed to afflict a large percentage of individuals throughout the world.
Blood cholesterol levels have been recognized as a major factor in determining whether an individual will suffer from heart disease. A major factor contributing to a relatively high blood cholesterol level is a high dietary intake of saturated fats.
The American Heart Association ("AHA") has recommended that, to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, individuals should reduce their daily dietary intake of fats and cholesterol. Specifically, the AHA has recommended (1) that individuals receive only 30% of their daily caloric intake from fat with only 10% of that amount being derived from saturated fat, and (2) that dietary cholesterol intake be kept below 300 milligrams per day.
To aid individuals in achieving these AHA recommendations, many consumer products, such as low fat cookbooks and low fat foods, are currently on the market. Nonetheless, many individuals avail themselves of the conveniences gained by eating in restaurants or ordering food from take-out restaurants. Unfortunately, many foods served in some of these establishments are relatively high in fat, due to the use of high fat meats.
The restaurant and food processing industry is aware of the growing public dietary conscience. Indeed, many restaurants have begun to offer low fat products on their menus. However, there is a concern that the removal of fat will adversely affect the taste of the food product and/or will add costly steps to food processing system.
Several approaches have been utilized in attempts to produce low fat meat products. One approach is to simply use low fat meat as a starting material. However, low fat meat can be relatively expensive. Further, low fat meats tend to be less "juicy" and less tasty because of the lack of fat present when cooking the meat.
Another approach is to reduce the fat in meat of relatively high fat content by cooking the meat and separating the fat rendered in the cooking process. This approach, unfortunately, also suffers from various problems. In particular, separating the fat from the meat is extremely difficult and expensive on a large industrial scale because cooked meat forms an interwoven matrix that holds the rendered fat, making draining difficult as well as time consuming. Further, even if separation of the fat can be achieved, this approach results in a low yield weight of low fat meat, since much of the initial raw meat weight is lost in the fat removal step. This increases the cost of the processed meat.
Various attempts at removing fat content from meats have been explored. For instance, in an industrial scale operation, U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,659 to Hunt describes a cooking vessel (or kettle) 13 provided with a number of relatively complex mechanisms for separating liquified fat from cooked meat. The kettle 13 described by Hunt operates with a "separation device" 48 (FIG. 3 of the Hunt patent) composed of a perforated pan 50 having a downward extending sidewall portion 52 and bottom portion 53. A support structure composed of rods 54, a threaded shaft 56, a cross support 60 and clamps 61 allow the pan 50 to be positioned within the kettle and rotated so as to draw the pan further into or outward of the kettle interior.
Hunt's separation device 48 is placed in the kettle and pressed downward onto the meat, after the meat is cooked, so as to draw the liquified fat through the pan, while maintaining the cooked meat below the pan (see FIG. 6 of the Hunt patent). This requires additional post cooking processing steps of removing the cooking agitator mechanism 29 and installing the separation device 48 onto the kettle. Furthermore, the kettle 13 is provided with either a tilting support for pouring out the separated liquified fat (FIG. 8 of the Hunt patent) or a pump mechanism for pumping out the separated liquified fat (FIG. 7 of the Hunt patent), requiring yet further processing steps and equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,099 to Elinsky is directed to another apparatus and method for defatting and cooking meats, wherein the meat is suspended above boiling water and exposed to steam. During cooking the fat from the meat drips off into the boiling water. However, this process and apparatus may not be suitable for many industrial scale operations.
The inventor of the present invention has proposed other fat removing techniques. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,607 to Margolis describes a method and apparatus for removing fat from a preformed meat patty by applying pressure to a cooked patty sufficient to exude a substantial portion of liquified fat from the product.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,980,185 and 5,116,633 to Small are directed to a further method for making meat products having a reduced saturated fat and cholesterol content. Heated unsaturated oil is added to raw meat. The heated unsaturated oil acts as an extracting agent for cholesterol. Further, due to the heated oil, fats in the meat melt and become soluble. The heated oil containing the cholesterol and fat is separated from the meat with a heated aqueous fluid. According to these patents, fat content is reduced from 20.8% to 18.5% and cholesterol is reduced from 115 mg to 80 mg of cholesterol per 100 g of beef.
Thus, several different processes and apparatuses have been proposed for reducing the fat content in a cooked meat product. However, typical known processes can be relatively expensive and time consuming and/or require relatively complex equipment and process steps. Further, various prior art processes can adversely affect the texture and taste of the product. Moreover, the amount of fat removal provided by these processes either tends to be insufficient or tends to cause a significant reduction in the overall product yield. Thus, there is a need in the industry for an improved system of removing fat from a food product that minimizes adverse affects on the texture and taste of the product, that is relatively simple and cost effective and that does not significantly reduce (or reduce at all) the overall product yield.